Slot machines, video poker machines and other conventional gaming machines are games of skill or chance which utilize a display of one or more images to inform the player or players the identity of each playing piece. Traditional images may be conventional playing card faces, conventional slot machine images (such as cherries, bar, orange, etc.) or other images.
Conventional slot machines include computer systems, with software programmed to play the game and images recorded in a library that are displayed on a conventional computer display before and during the game. The images may be still photographs or video clips.
Some patents describe the library of images used in slot machines or other gaming machines. U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,790 describes a library of images of famous people displayed on a screen during the game. U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,160 describes images imprinted on playing pieces used to play the game. U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,147 describes a library of images of aliens displayed on the screen during a game.
The use of these libraries that deviate from the traditional images can provide an interesting variation on conventional games. Players to whom the images appeal can find such games to be more interesting than the generic libraries of images offered by conventional games. For example, a fan of Lucille Ball will find images from the “I Love Lucy Show” far more interesting than cherries, bars and oranges displayed on a slot machine. Such a player may play such a game more than the player might if the images were generic images. A casino offering games with such images will appeal to such players more than a casino that does not, increasing the business of the casino offering such games. Furthermore, a player is more likely to return to a casino offering games with images that appeal to that player, such loyalty also increasing the business of the casino.
However, libraries of images all suffer from the same drawback: the images in the library will not be meaningful to every player in a casino. Because players in a casino may play games with images that are meaningful to that player, the use of fixed libraries of images can force the player to either search out a game displaying meaningful images, taking time away from the time the player would spend playing the game, or play games with more generic images, making the player less likely to return to that casino. In each case, the player may play less than he would if any machine selected had images meaningful to the player.
Another problem with libraries of images is that, although the library of images may appeal to a player more than traditional images, the available images in the machines at a casino may not be the most meaningful images for any particular player. For example, even fans of Lucille Ball may find images that do not contain Lucille Ball to be more meaningful to that player: a player may enjoy Lucille Ball, but find Barbara Streisand to be even more appealing. Thus, although the images of Lucille Ball can cause the player to play more than the player would with other images, if the most appealing images of Barbara Streisand were available, the player might play the game even more. Thus, fixed libraries of images can cause casinos to earn less money than they otherwise might.
Another problem with libraries of images is that the images that are part of the game may not be taken only a short time before playing the game. If a group of friends shows up in Las Vegas, it would be fun to use an image of the group of friends as an image in the game. No conventional game in which monetary prizes are awarded to a player includes images taken of the player for use in the game.
Slot machines, video poker and other games played in casinos suffer from another drawback: the player only wins as long as the player plays the game. There is no opportunity to win during times that players do not play the game. No conventional game in which players are awarded monetary prizes allows players to win after they have stopped playing the game.
What is needed is a system and method that can provide images most meaningful to a player to be made a part of a game in which money is paid as a prize, allow spontaneous images to be added to such a game, and allow players to win prizes even after they stop playing the game.
Another problem with conventional gaming machines such as slot machines, video poker, and other games for which a monetary prize is provided is the fact that the images that make up the game and are provided to the player do not generate revenue to any party responsible for providing the images.
What is needed is a system and method that can assist a party providing images to players of a game for which a monetary or other prize is paid to obtain revenue resulting from the display of those images.